Goa airport eyes touching 80% flight handling capacity by December-end

Goa airport expects to touch 75-80 per cent of its flight handling capacity by December-end from the current figure of around 35 per cent, a senior official said.

Airport Director Gagan Malik told PTI that it is absolutely safe to fly now with all the precautions at the aerodrome and during the flight in place.

Right from airport entry till the boarding gate, the entire area is sanitised, he said.

Even the baggage of the passengers is sanitised, he added.

Malik said before the COVID-19 outbreak, Goa airport was handling 85-90 departures a day.

In the current scenario, it is handling around 21 flights and the figure will increase in the days to come, he added.

Malik said that since Goa is open for the tourism sector, passenger growth has been consistent, especially during the weekends.

He said the airport would be touching 50 per cent capacity by the end of October.

There are certain metro airports which have restricted their slots due to which there are connectivity issues, he said.

Once the metro airports open up, then by December-end the Goa aerodrome will touch 75-80 per cent of its capacity, he emphasised.

He further said that while international arrivals are yet to resume, various chartered flight operators have booked 351 slots at Goa airport till March 2021.

Majority of them are from Russia, followed by the UK, he said.